Leaders attend the virtual summits held on December 9 (Photo: VNA) At the 9th ACMECS Summit held under thetheme "Partnership for Connectivity and Resilience", ACMECS leadersreaffirmed their strong commitment to fully capitalise the enormous economicpotential of the sub region as well as to chart out the path for futurecooperation for a more connected, smart, sustainable, and resilient ACMECScommunity, based on the spirit of good neighbourliness and traditional friendshipto achieve peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.
The leaders commended Cambodia's chairmanship in the past two years in advancing the shared goals of membercountries in realising prosperity and wellbeing for peoples, amidst the unprecedentedchallenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other non-traditional securityissues.
In combating COVID-19, they agreed toreinforce the ongoing national efforts and to strengthen cooperation withinASEAN-led mechanisms, with external partners and international organisations,especially the World Health Organisation (WHO), to ensure that COVID-19vaccines will become public goods and that essential medical services will beavailable, accessible, and affordable for all.
On socio-economic recovery, they discussedthe collaborative means and principles on which member countries can safely andsecurely promote multi-dimensional connectivity, and address setbacks caused bythe COVID-19 on the mobility and global value chains, while ensuring adequatesocial protection for all the people affected.
On the future direction, the leadersunderlined the importance of effective and sustainable cooperation among membercountries and ACMECS development partners, in which Japan offered to host theACMECS Special Summit in 2021 on the margin of the 13th Mekong-Japan Summit,and looked forward to the operational mechanism of the ACMECS Development Fund aswell as the effective functioning of the ACMECS coordinating committees toaccelerate the implementation of key priority projects in line with the ACMECSMaster Plan.
The leaders concluded the summit byadopting the Phnom Penh Declaration of the 9th ACMECS Summit, which has three documentsas its annexes, namely terms of reference of the ACMECS Development Fund, Conceptpaper on working mechanism for ACMECS Coordinating Committees under ACMECSMaster Plan (2019-2023,) and list of ACMECS prioritised projects.
At the 10th CLMV Summit, leaders reiteratedthe importance of CLMV cooperation in bridging the development gap withinASEAN, ensuring peace, stability, prosperity, and improved livelihoods for thepeople in the region, as well as constituting a crucial element in themultilateral efforts to combat and fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addressing the future challenges, theystressed the importance of the 2021-2022 CLMV Action Plan endorsed by the CLMVEconomic Ministers on August 24, which specifies clear directions in trade andinvestment cooperation, human resources development, implementation of regionalcommitments, COVID-19 recovery, and a framework for transforming the sub-regioninto an Advanced Global Business Hub.
Leaders of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam atthe 11th CLV Summit expressed their firm commitment to strengthen the CLVDevelopment Triangle Area with a view to accelerate economic growth, alleviatepoverty, and promote socio-cultural progress by capitalising on each membercountry's potentials, strengths, and resources./.
